Bernard Wilhelm’s Spring Collection is a Brilliant, Perverse Cartoon

Still kooky and great, after all these years.

One of the first to precipitate the prodigious rise of bright colors, bold prints and graphic text after the minimalism of the 90's, Bernard Wilhelm's brilliant, demented spring collection is as strange and innovative as anything he's done before. The collection itself is like a bright, surreal cartoon you happen upon when you're watching TV really stoned at like 2am, and you can't tell if it's actually as fucked up as it seems. Wilhelm throws fabrics and colors together with abandon; the real unifying elements of the collection are in the details: the drape of a neckline, a dusting of fringe, kimono-inspired detailing. There are some sure fire conversation-starters in the mix here, especially one-shouldered silk dresses that bear the elaborately beaded slogan, "to accuse your exwife of snorting coke, press 1," and "America's Next Mop Todel" t-shirts. An accompanying press release is equally fiery, a free-form poem with lines like, "could Michelle Obama be pregnant? And by whom?" Click through the lookbook below to immerse yourself in Wilhelm's futuristic raver vision, then click here to see the even trippier lookbooks, but don't blame us if it feels like reality is slowly slipping away.